Nothing hits home with Zinfandel better than delicious chocolate. But combine chocolate with cookie and raspberries, and you just can't go wrong. Especially with this 2012 Zinfandel, the epitome of what one would come to expect from a Paso Robles Zinfandel. The bright berry and spicy pepper of the Zinfandel begs for the chocolate and sweet of the fruit in this cookie. Match made in heaven! This is a somewhat altered Martha Stewart's Cookies recipe.

For the Cookie:                                                             For the Filling:

1 3/4 cup Flour                                                             1 1/3 cup fresh raspberries (1/2 pint)
1 tsp coarse salt                                                            2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda                                                          7 1/2 oz milk or dark chocolate
10 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter                               1/3 cup cream
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract, a good one

Preheat oven to 350̊ F. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Mix butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth then add in flour mixture. For a large cookie, use a 1 inch ice cream scoop to drop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes and cool on wire racks. This makes 24 almost 2 inch cookies, which is easy when assembling, but large when serving. We prefer a smaller serving, so adjust accordingly: trial batch as written, succeeding batches maybe smaller scoop. Baking time didn't change.

For the filling: Puree raspberries and sugar, then, if desired, pour mixture through a fine sieve to extract seeds. Melt chocolate slowly, remove from heat, whisk in cream. Then add raspberry mixture and whisk until uniform. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (must be very cool, but spreadable). Spread a generous 1 or 2 tbsp of filling onto bottom of one of the cookies, sandwich with another. Allow time to let cookies set before serving. Allow the baker a glass of Zinfandel.